Conventional digital cameras are typically constrained by battery life and by image-data storage capacity. It is therefore not uncommon for a user to find that near the end of a day the digital camera has insufficient free image-data memory to take further images that present themselves. The user must then choose between missing the newly presented images or deleting stored image data to make room for new images.
There already exist a number of internet-connected image-data storage systems which permit registered users to store large amounts of image data for access by themselves (or others to whom they grant access). These storage service systems are typically web based and generally provide functionality enabling a user to organise their images as desired—in other words, the user is effectively provided with an on-line photo-album service.
Such on-line storage services would seem to offer digital camera users the possibility of circumventing the problem of limited local image-data memory by uploading the image data to the storage service whenever the local memory is low on free space. However, many digital cameras do not have the functionality necessary to connect to the storage service whilst mobile (this would typically require wireless connectivity via a communications infrastructure including a cellular Public Land Mobile Network, or a wireless LAN, connected to the internet). Furthermore, even if equipped with appropriate mobile communication means for connecting via the communications infrastructure to the storage service, the digital camera may well have low battery power levels at the same time as experiencing low available memory problems with the result that it is not possible to establish a reliable connection through the communications infrastructure to the storage service.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a flexible way of transferring image data from a mobile entity to a remote storage service.